About Me

When not nosing, tasting, drinking and reading about malt whisky, I own one of Israel's premiere boutique coaching practices, specializing in small businesses and executive teams.
Trained in the law, I was an international law attorney and took part in Israel's peace negotiations with the Palestinians, as well as representing my country at the UN for parts of the negotiations on the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Later I was appointed to the military bench.
My favorite thing, other than whisky, is teaching.
You can contact me through the social media buttons above or by email: michael(at)maltandoak.com, replacing the (at) with an @.

Statement of Integrity and Guidelines

Malt and Oak is an independent whisky blog, offering my own views, opinions and news from the world of malt whisky.
These are my guidelines:

1. All whisky reviews published are of whiskies I have personally tasted and noted. Guest bloggers only write about their own personal tastings.

2. With the exception of official whisky samples, I accept no consideration whatsoever from any distillery, bottler, distributor, drink company or store for my opinions.

3. I maintain strict impartiality and objectivity in tasting all whiskies, not least when tasting official samples. Any review of official whisky samples sent to me will be so noted in the post.

4. I will accept invitations to tastings, events and official visits, and full disclosure will be made on any tasting notes and articles resulting from these events or visits.

5. Any sample received over 30 ml in volume is shared with fellow whisky bloggers. In any event, no sample larger than 100 ml will be accepted.

6. No advertisements promoting specific brands will be accepted.

7. I will answer any inquiry by my readers as quickly and as fully as possible.

8. Should I give a link purchase the reviewed whisky, it will be given free of any commercial interest. The link given will always point to cheapest selling price I found on the web. No commission is paid, nor any other consideration given, for such link.

9. As of July 2017, I serve as Douglas Laing’s Israel brand ambassasdor. As such, I will obviously not be posting reviews of Douglas Laing products.

A Longrow Not Quite There…

Longrow is Springbank’s peated line of whisky. It’s distilled in a regular double distillation (as opposed to Springbank’s partial triple and Hazelburn’s triple distillations) and is peated to 50-55 ppm. Longrow comprises about 10% of Springbank’s rather small production. In 2014, Springbank was operating at about 20% of its full capacity, producing only 130,000 liters of alcohol.

Photo Credit: whiskyandmore.co.nz

Springbank has moved away from NAS whisky, discontinuing the CV range and returning to a full aged range with a single exception – the Longrow CV has simply dropped the CV, and is now simply called ‘Longrow’. Frank McHardy, Springbank’s legendary master distiller who retired two years ago, said in an interview about the Longrow CV that “younger peated whiskies give you a good hit of peat, which fades as they get older, so Longrow works well with the CV format”. While the name of the expression changed, the rationale behind it didn’t.

The Longrow 14 was meant to be part of an aged range with a 10-14-18 year olds. Currently, only the Longrow 18 remains (I reviewed it here), and the current range includes the Longrow, the Longrow Red (an annual cask strength release matured in a red wine cask – currently in a port cask). The Longrow 14 was matured in both sherry and bourbon casks.

Photo Credit: thewhiskyexchange.com

Longrow 14 Year Old, Bottled 2008 (46% ABV, NCF, NC)

Appearance: Gold, legs are quick with a lot of residue in the glass.

Nose: Vanilla ice cream, confectionery sugar, lightest touch of peat which gets a little stronger. Time in the glass lightens the sweetness and makes it more sherry like.

Palate: Peat and pepper. It’s very spicy with some notes of honey. Rather simple palate with very little complexity.

Linger: Somewhat short, it leaves peat on the tongue, spices in the back of the throat and some residual sweetness.

Conclusion

In a blind tasting, I wouldn’t guess this as a Longrow. It’s somewhat flat and very non sophisticated. With the rather simple palate, it just doesn’t really come together and is clearly the step between the younger CV (which I liked) and the 18 year old (which didn’t impress me).